How bad is it out here in California where yours truly lives? Two weeks ago, after a long job search, my former foster son started a job as a fundraiser for a major charity. Today he learned that he and virtually everyone else in that office were being laid off. Then, two hours later, he learned that his sister-in-law and her husband were both laid off from the company for which they had worked for years. And all of these folks (my former foster son and his inlaws) have kids.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.